Logistics Trends for 2021

It’s hard to believe that 2020 and all its craziness is now behind us.  No one saw COVID-19 coming, nor the global impact is has had.  If there is a silver lining or opportunity in this cloud for brands and the logistics industry, it is certainly the increase of ecommerce business.  In fact, the estimate of U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the second quarter of 2020 totaled $200.7 billion, an increase of 37.0 percent (±1.2%) from the first quarter of 2020.  And with how busy the holiday peak season was, we will likely keep seeing these increases.  Nonetheless, we need to learn from 2020 and think about 2021.  Here are some of our thoughts for 2021.

Going Green

There were more ecommerce orders in 2020 than ever before.  U.S. e-commerce sales will hit a projected $709.78 billion in 2020, or an increase of 18%.  With that comes an increase in deliveries which means more delivery trucks on the road.  Climate change is here and we need to drastically improve conditions to keep our planet thriving.  By nature, the logistics industry contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and we need to better ourselves.  There are eco-friendly warehouses, whose purpose is to reduce and monitor the use of electricity, heat, water, and gas.

What’s NRI doing about this?  One of our principles is “Creating Harmony and Sustainability for All”.  We work with our clients to reduce any excess waste and offer sustainable solutions.  Some of our clients, such as United by Blue, have opted to use recycled packaging for their orders.  Other clients, such as Tentree, do not use any plastic polybags, only recycled rope to keep items tidy.

Focus on the wellbeing of the environment plays a major role at NRI.  We work internally to identify and embrace opportunities for continuous improvement in sustainability, and we also work to share suggestions with our clients on how they too can make improvements.  We’ve embraced several opportunities including:

• Storm water runoff management
• Motion sensor and LED lighting in warehouses
• Recycling program for all possible materials (paper/cardboard, plastics, wood, metals)
• Low-flow plumbing
• Working with clients to identify and remove waste in packaging i.e. straps on cartons, excessive and/or non-recyclable fill in cartons
• Continuous education of our team members on opportunities to reduce or remove single-use items from their lives

We’re All Partners

Things are better when we’re (working) together!  Treating suppliers and logistics companies like partners is beneficial to everyone.  Good, clear communication around sales information, time-in-shipping data, and other KPIs can help you, your suppliers, and logistics partners be prepared for any increase or decrease in sale trends.  Working together makes it easier to achieve your goals, than you going at it alone.  Using big data and analytics will help you identify any actionable insights for any sales trends, pricing strategies, and utilization of logistical resources (such as NRI).

If you speak with any of our current clients, they’ll be the first to tell you that NRI puts a major focus on preparedness.  We partner with our clients on sales data, forecasting, shipping information, returns, and anything else we need to prepare from a facilities and labor perspective.  This past year has reinforced NRI’s believe that we need to be prepared for anything, and build in contingency plans for the unexpected.

Robots are Taking Over

Not really, however, in the constant effort to improve processes and automation, many supply chains and logistics companies are looking into the use of robotics.  During the first half of 2019, North American companies spent $869 million on more than 16,400 robots.  Even outside of warehouses, companies are investing in drones and self-driving car technology to free up manpower to be better used elsewhere.

We’re embracing these technologies at NRI and constantly looking to how we can automate certain tasks so that our human warehouse employees can become more efficient and apply additional focus on our value-added services like giftwrapping, tagging, and handling fragile items.  NRI has long been a leader in technology investment and development – operating on our proprietary 3PL software suite and with robust Technology and Engineering teams focused on the mindset of continuous improvement.

Dude, What’s My Budget?

No, seriously, what’s my budget?  Just like 2020, it’s hard to predict how much to allocate towards logistics partners because this year has been abnormal, and we don’t know what 2021 will look like.  Budgeting for 2021 will need mapping existing resources with strategy and a shift from the traditional inputs and standard approaches.  The need for more incredible speed and cost control spans across all industries, therefore making it a challenging task to achieve a perfect budget for 2021.  Another suggestion is just to treat your budget as a range.  In many ways budgeting will be a guessing game, and companies need to put together a plan based on contingencies.

Because we treat all our clients as partners, we work hand-in-hand to predict, as accurately as possible, any trends and forecasts.  This helps our clients set aside a budget for their fulfillment and freight budget.

With how ecommerce trends are continuing to grow, we hope 2020 can be a learning experience for all and that we make 2021 better.  We must think about the environment more than ever, become partners through the entire supply chain process, use technology to our advantage, and crunch numbers to create a budget that won’t break the bank.

We’re here to help. Let’s talk about scalable solutions for your business. Contact us here.

Balance of Lifestyle and Success

We can’t be successful without having balance. Our core value, Balance of Lifestyle and Success, recognizes that work-life balance is an important element of a healthy work environment. We want to limit stress in the workplace and ensure our employees’ mental health is optimized so that we can bring our best self to work every day, and home again at the end of the day.

At NRI, we believe in a comfortable facility culture, where all are respected and celebrated.  We take turns at tuning the dial on the music in the warehouse. You’ll find dogs in the offices. While we work hard, we like to play hard, too. We strive to accommodate flexible schedules so that our team members can catch that school concert or make those important appointments easy to get to. Our teams pitch in when times are tough, and they are expected to take some time for themselves when the storm passes. NRI ensures that all employees are able to thrive in and outside of work.

NRI employees can often be found surfing before work, hiking after work, and hitting the wonderful camping spots Canada and the U.S. have to offer on the weekends. We stress the idea of recharging. We seek harmony. Every employee, every human being is unique – we expect our team to be present both personally and professionally; find their happiness and live a life free of fear.

Want to learn more about NRI’s Core Values? Click here.

Quality and Accountability in All Actions

Our third core value is “Quality and Accountability in All Actions”. NRI is known as a consultative 3PL because we want to see all brands succeed and will step outside the norm to help them in that quest.

We enjoy working with both emerging as well as established brands, and enjoy providing a level of guidance that allows these brands to succeed. We have a dedicated Accounts & Planning team that provides our clients with further insights and strategies to help them grow successfully.

We ask ourselves, “what can we do to meet all our clients needs as accurately and efficiently as possible?”. Our Client Services department works tirelessly to ensure our clients’ needs are met – often times stopping at nothing to ensure last minute requests are fulfilled. We strive to work with all of our clients on understanding their needs, as well as ensuring we provide the best quality service possible.

While things certainly looked different this year (our warehouse is full of colorful masks and face shields!), we have remained true to our values and our goal of delivering success to our clients and partners.

Want to learn more about NRI’s Core Values? Click here.

Disciplined and Committed Focus on Results

One of our core values is “Disciplined and Committed Focus on Results”. At NRI we work diligently with our partners to understand their needs and execute on our promises.

Our solutions-focused, client-first approach means that we are constantly in touch with our clients and partners in order to build the most effective plans. Being in the middle of the holiday season, we’re seeing the fruits of our labor. Over 6 months ago we began planning for the holiday rush. While this year was even more unpredictable with the added challenges COVID-19 brought us all, we still drove hard to build the best possible plans for operational success. We dove deep with our clients into their forecasted volumes and promotion events (like all those great Black Friday deals you got!) and created plans around space, labor, and transportation needs. We reviewed our staffing plans and hired numerous new, full-time employees to help us through the holiday season, and continue building their careers with us in the new year. Our transportation partners are a huge part of our success and we wanted to ensure they fully appreciated our clients’ volumes. They too are having significant challenges with the COVID related impacts to logistics, so we were certain to engage in even deeper planning than usual with them so they could adjust their schedules and capacity.

With the combination of peak season as well as new challenges 2020 brought, we have still managed warehouse production over 400% of our normal volume. This is not an easy feat given that, at times, 30%+ of the planned necessary workforce was unavailable to work for health and safety reasons – key concerns to us at NRI. We’re working hard to deliver scalable solutions and complex logistics, not only through the holiday, but the rest of the year.

Want to learn more about NRI’s Core Values? Click here.